Wednesday, January 16, 2013

So John Key's claim that the Hobbit created 3000 jobs is just some made up number from the production company that benefitted from his re-writing of our law for a foreign corporation?

Key denies Hobbit job numbers made upPrime Minister John Key has defended the number of jobs he claimed The Hobbit films created - after NZ First leader Winston Peters said the 3000 figure was "plucked out of thin air".

In November, Key said filming The Hobbit movies in New Zealand created about 3000 jobs.

Documents obtained by Peters under the Official Information Act bring the accuracy of the figure into question.

An adviser in Key's office emailed someone at Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films in October to ask how many jobs The Hobbit had created.

"The context is if he's asked about Labour's industrial relations policy and how it might impact on the New Zealand film industry he can say something like ‘about 3000 people will work on The Hobbit movies, if that policy had been in place then all those people might never have got a job'," the Key adviser emailed.

Wingnut Films' response was: "3000 is a good number".

Seeing as Key and Jackson manufactured a Union crisis for vast corporate welfare for Warner Brothers, it shouldn't surprise us that they are being just as creative with how many people actually gained jobs from this movie.

Plans for a giant Hollywood-style studio complex in the heart of Upper Hutt are moving ahead, with significant progress made on a land deal, despite discontent from local Maori.

As surplus Crown land, the 66-hectare Wallaceville site had to be considered for land banking before it could be sold.

But Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples have decided not to land bank it.

A Sites of Significance application, based on the area's historical significance to local Maori, was dismissed last month, a spokesman for Mr Finlayson confirmed. This has paved the way for a sale on the open market by owner AgResearch.

Local iwi are unhappy at the move. Claimant Michelle Marino said she considered it "a contemporary Treaty breach".

New Zealand producer Michael Garlick, who is working on the proposal with Raleigh Studios, said he was keen to work with Maori in the future.

So the heritage of local Maori is an afterthought, Hollywood dreams prevail. No help from the Maori Party, Pita Sharples comfortable with the immediate privatisation of Crown land of historical significance.

Founded in 1915, Raleigh is the largest independent studio operator in the United States. It has built studio complexes across the United States as well as one in Hungary and another in China.

Among recent movies produced at Raleigh Studios are Avatar, Iron Man and Transformers III.

Plans for the Wallaceville site include international quality sound stages, a public amphitheatre, outdoor filming lots, a film school, and a secure residential village for Hollywood stars.

According to a comment posted by “Kobus” on an earlier article regarding this.

“The same group built a monstrous studio complex near Budapest in 2007. Investors got huge financial benefits due to a Hungarian governmental loan and tax breaks. Since then, Hellboy 2 and a Hungarian movie were shot there, nothing else.”

In 2012 Raleigh Michigan Studios was unable to make bond payments to investors due to the inability to attract filming and cut backs to the state’s film incentive program.

It’s well known from many sources on the net that attracting film production at locales around the globe results in no, little or temporary job creation and no or minimal contribution to the economy.

In most cases filming is attracted to these locales as a result of state incentives, as well documented in the Hobbit saga.

The construction of the studio in Upper Hutt will be backed by investors, and probably state incentives. To ensure it is profitable will entail attracting film production, which will occur at the expense of the public through state incentives.

This government is creating the corporate welfare state at the expense of the public.

"This government is creating the corporate welfare state at the expense of the public."

And meanwhile, 40,000 jobs in manufacturing are lost,

"Recent job losses in the manufacturing sector are “regrettable but probably unavoidable”, Mr English told parliament, while Mr Joyce accused the opposition parties and the association of “seeking to prop up declining industries” and “seeking to bet against world financial markets using taxpayer funds”."